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Chapter Summary
The goal of the final chapter is to summarize the three key themes that run through the book. The first theme stresses the need to take a socio-technical perspective that allows for an in-depth examination of the social context of technology design, use, and implementation. The second theme demonstrates how innovation is associated with economics and as a result has consequences for our understanding of inequality and power relations. The last theme shows the many ways in which technological developments lead toward social change, impacting community, social networks, and social relations. The final chapter also embarks on a critical examination of the ethical and moral dimensions of humans’ engagement with technology. The following themes are explored: the neutrality of technology, technology as human destiny, and technology as progress. Through this discussion, the chapter emphasizes the unexpected consequences of technology with which society must, ultimately, come to terms.
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you should learn to do the following:
- to summarize and evaluate the three central themes of the book;
- to examine the ethical and moral dimensions of our technological society, including the idea of the neutrality of technology;
- to think critically about the metaphors of technology as destiny and technology as progress;
- to stress the materiality of technological production, use, and disuse and its effect on countries in the Global South;
- to examine the social and health consequences of overload and addiction resulting from overreliance on mobile devices, apps, and online games.